Society has become increasingly aware of the importance of maintaining proper nutritional habits. As the average diet increasingly utilizes processed foods, it has become more important for processed foods to provide the same good nutritional benefits of natural foods.
Nutrients necessary to support life include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Processed food products are often supplemented by the addition of synthetic nutrients to help replace natural nutrients that may have been rendered inactive or otherwise damaged during processing of the food product. Elevated temperatures during cooking, for example, may damage the natural nutrients that are present in foods. The freeze drying process by which food products are dehydrated also may damage the natural nutrients that are present in foods.
Besides nutrients, other non-nutritive compounds found in, for example, fruits and vegetables may have beneficial effects when consumed. Nutraceuticals, for example, are chemical compounds in foods that may aid in preventing or treating diseases and other medical conditions when consumed even though they are not traditionally recognized to possess nutritive value.
Phytochemicals are chemical compounds in plants that also may aid in preventing or treating diseases and other medical conditions when consumed even though they also are not traditionally recognized to possess nutritive value. Nutraceuticals and phytochemicals, like nutrients, may be damaged by subsequent processing of food products to which they are added.
Heating processes for stabilizing and preserving nutrients, particularly phytochemicals, that involve application of a colloid plant extract selected from vegetable gums, hydroscopic phosphatides, vegetable albumin, and pectin are not entirely satisfactory from the standpoint of maintaining the nutritional value of the original foodstuffs, since a relatively large percentage of the nutritional value still may be lost during subsequent processing.
Conventional nutraceutical and phytochemical food additives are often ineffective in promoting good health and nutrition because they are digested in the stomach, which effectively breaks down the additives into compounds that provide less advantage to the body from a health and nutrition viewpoint. The highly acidic conditions present in the stomach prevent many nutraceutical and phytochemical food additives from reaching the intestines, and particularly the small intestine, where the additives may be absorbed for use by the body to provide a nutritional benefit to the consumer.
What is needed is a composition that stabilizes and protects micronutrients, phytochemicals, nutraceuticals, and other beneficial compounds in food additives and food articles from degradation during processing.